These are dark times in the nation's capital. And I mean baseball, not politics, which is saying something.
After a dispiriting loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, the Washington Nationals sit at 66-65, 6.5 games back of the New York Mets in the National League East.
As if they needed it hammered home, CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman contrasted the Nationals' 2015 showing against the Cardinals':
To compound matters, the Nats are nine games off the pace for the NL's second wild-card slot, meaning their path to the postseason is almost assuredly division title or bust.
If you're the betting type, you're putting your second mortgage on "bust."
Washington, one of the few squads that looked like an October lock entering spring training, has simply fallen apart over the last month.
On Aug. 1, the Nationals were 54-47, two games up on the Mets. They didn't appear invincible—far from it, in fact—but they were on a playoff track.
After a disastrous 12-17 August, Washington is, if not buried, at least peering up through an imposing pile of pennant-race rubble.
Can the Nationals correct course and avoid one of the more colossal crash-and-burn stories in recent memory?
ESPN.com's Eddie Matz isn't bullish. Since 1994, Matz noted, 24 teams that were out of first place Aug. 30 went on to win their division. (Matz, like me, is operating under the assumption that Washington won't grab a wild-card slot.)
However, Matz continued, of those 24 teams, only two overcame a deficit of six games or more.
So the Nats have a rough slog ahead. It will take a torrid finish and at least a minor Mets meltdown (something that's been known to happen).
There is reason for cautious—and I emphasize cautious—optimism, and it springs from two sources.
First, there's the Nationals' September schedule. After one more road game against the Cardinals, Washington will play 14 of its next 17 games against the Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies, the NL East's sub-.500 bottom-feeders.
Also in the mix is a huge series at Nationals Park against the Mets that starts Sept. 7.
The Nats need to sweep, or at least take two out of three, against New York and take advantage of the rest of the calendar month, when they play 18 games at home and 20 against clubs with losing records.
The Mets will also have a chance to feast on the Braves, Fish and Phils, but they play the bulk of their September games on the road and host the Yankees, the Big Apple's other playoff-pushing franchise, for a three-game series.
Let's say the Nats capitalize and shave a handful of games off the Mets' division lead. That would set the stage for a season-ending three-game series between the two teams at Citi Field beginning Oct. 2.
There's a path, albeit a winding one, for Washington to give its star-studded roster another crack at postseason glory.
Speaking of which: The Nats' August swoon doesn't change the fact their dugout is loaded with marquee talent.
Bryce Harper's power has dwindled, with just five of his 31 home runs coming after the All-Star break. But his .333 batting average and 1.091 OPS still put him squarely in the NL MVP conversation.
And while the Nationals' vaunted super-rotation hasn't lived up to the hype, it is stocked with ace-level arms.
Like Max Scherzer, who for much of the season was throwing like a Cy Young favorite. An awful August (sound familiar?) bumped Scherzer off his pedestal, as the stud right-hander posted an ugly 6.43 ERA for the month and failed to pick up a win.
The prolonged hiccup was due to wonky mechanics, as Scherzer explained to James Wagner of the Washington Post.
"It's my arm action," Scherzer said. "It's a small thing within my arm action where I'm not quite getting my fingers on top of the ball, and it's causing me to flatten everything out."
Scherzer dealt with a similar kink in 2010, according to Wagner, and ironed it out.
"It's going to take some work," the Nats' $210 million man added.
He was talking about getting himself right, but he might as well have been outlining Washington's overarching dilemma.
Anything less than a deep playoff run will be viewed as an epic letdown. But for the Nationals to make that happen, it'll take an even more epic comeback.
Can they do it? The opportunity's there, though the odds are long. Will they? Keep your eyes glued on the capital.
All statistics and standings current as of Sept. 1 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.
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